Had to stay up most the night to get them finished, but I was finally able to get round two of the edits turned on Friday morning. Yay! Such a relief to get those finished and click "send." After taking a moment to dance around the living room, of course, I had a little time left to get ready for work.
I think I was still smiling during my commute when I literally smacked myself in the head. THE DELETED SCENES! THEY'RE STILL THERE!
You might know how well I handle requests to delete things, so when I did take out scenes the editor wanted removed from the manuscript, I tacked them on at the end to save them. I couldn't bear to just shove them outside to be all alone in the cold and rain. Plus, maybe I'd find a place they could be used. If not the whole scene, at least a sentence or a few of the prettiest words.
But I meant to cut and paste them onto a new document before sending the manuscript. They weren't supposed to be clinging onto "THE END" or standing around like bad house guests. As soon as I parked I took out the phone to fire off an "ACK!" email to the editor. She's lovely, and replied back with a "No worries allowed" message. I still felt like a dork.
It could have been worse, though. At least I didn't have any notes-to-self on there like, "Develop sinister plot to sneak this back into the manuscript. Mwoohoohoohahaha!" And thankfully it's an editor I'm already working with and she's really nice. If this were our first correspondence, leaving a page and a half of randomness after the story ends wouldn't make the best impression.
I know I'm not the only one--what flakiness have you submitted in a premature click of the "send" key? Letters addressed to "Dear Agent," or a draft that wasn't ready to go?
Anything that's made you feel like this guy?
Yeah, I once sent what I thought was 3 chapters for critique only to discover that I'd sent the entire document which included chapters like "write a chapter about stuff here" as well as random half-written scenes, deleted scenes and pure "notes-to-self" crap. The only reason I discovered that I'd done this was because the crit partner actually attempted to crit the entire thing.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, she didn't offer to crit for me again. :-)
I don't really have much to add or a funny anecdote, however, I just wanted to say that commercial made me snort-laugh.
ReplyDeleteOh, I feel your pain. Here are two recent examples from my life:
ReplyDelete1. I entered a historical fiction contest, requiring a bibliography. I complied, but also attached a draft biblio (library call numbers and all) for an unrelated story set in a different century and continent. It happened to be in my printer tray.
2. Here's my prize-winner: I got a request for full from a prospective agent. When I sent the ms, I got a vacation message back. Wanting to be thorough, I emailed her assistant, named Maria. Later, I looked back at that email. In its greeting, I had left off the letter O in the phrase "Hello, Maria." AAAGH! I apologized profusely, and she was very nice about it.
LOL! Oh, Lynne. Thank you. I needed to laugh this morning and your "tacked them on at the end to save them" got me started. I love it!
ReplyDeleteHolly, I can't believe she tried to critique the whole thing! Weird she didn't offer again, huh?
ReplyDeleteSarah, that was my favorite Superbowl commercial this year!
Anne, those are hilarious! What a relief Maria was nice-- I bet she got a good laugh out of it, really.
Always glad to provide a morning laugh, Shelli!
Thanks for the comments and the funny examples!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI write a blog (www.wherethewritercomestowrite.blogspot.com) where I read and obsess over books; I was wondering if I would be able to get a proof copy of Chained to review for it?
Thanks,
Romi.
Thanks Romi, the ARCs haven't been printed yet but I'll keep you in mind for when that time comes.
ReplyDelete